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© 1996 Oxford University Press

research-article

Subcutaneous Morphine Infusion by Syringe Driver for Terminally III Patients

H. J. M. COOLS, A. M. M. BERKHOUT and G. H. DE BOCK

Department of General Practice, University of Leiden p.o. 2088, 2301 CB Leiden, The Netherlands
De Bieslandhof Delft

The study aimed to find whether subcutaneous morphine administration by syringe driver for terminally ill patients in a Dutch nursing home led to higher morphine doses and earlier death than routine morphine administration. The data comprised the files of all patients dying over a 2-year period in a 355-bed nursing home in Delft in the Netherlands. Thirty-eight per cent of the patients had been given morphine, 29% by continuous subcutaneous syringe driver. In comparing the patients given morphine with and without a syringe driver no differences emerged in mean age, sex, length of admission, type of ward, diagnosis, duration of morphine administration and mean dose. The data indicate that subcutaneous morphine administration by syringe driver decreases dose frequency problems and improves the control of pain and other symptoms in the last week before death. There was no evidence that administration of morphine in this way shortens survival.

Revision received September 18, 1995.
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